Crayon Shin-Chan

Guest Author - Lesley Aeschliman

Crayon Shin-Chan, which is also known as Shin-Chan in the United States, is an anime based on a manga series written by Yoshito Usui.

Crayon Shin-Chan follows the antics of a five-year-old boy named Shinnosuke "Shin" Nohara. These antics tend to include Shin's parents, neighbors, and friends. The series is set in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. In the Japanese version of the series, many of the jokes come from Shin-chan's occasionally weird, unnatural, and inappropriate use of language. The jokes also come from Shin's inappropriate behavior.

FUNimation Entertainment acquired the license to Crayon Shin-Chan in 2005. When FUNimation produced the American dub of the series, the company took a lot of liberties with the original source material. Since the original Japanese series lacks a sense of continuity, FUNimation has taken advantage of this by producing the episodes out of their original order. However, FUNimation's approach has caused some characters to be introduced earlier in the series than they were in the original Japanese version. The American dub also created new, previously non-existent backstories for the characters. FUNimation has also given very different personalities to some of the characters.

Another thing FUNimation did when they produced the American dub of Crayon Shin-Chan was to make it an adult-oriented series. There is a bit of swearing (from both the children and adults in the series), there are numerous sexual references, and dark humor. There are also references to current popular American culture; for example, a couple of episodes reference the failed Presidential bid of Rudy Giuliani.

Most episodes of Crayon Shin-Chan have received a TV rating of TV-14, although a few have actually received a TV-MA rating. Crayon Shin-Chan is definitely not an anime property being aimed at young children, even if the title character is a five-year-old boy. Personally, I would recommend this series to anime viewers who are 15 or 16 years of age and older that appreciate "gross out" humor, dark humor, swearing, and sexual references.

Title

Episodes

Release Year(s)

Director

Studio

N.A. Licensor

Crayon Shin-chan

1126+

1992-ongoing

Mitsuru Hongo/Keiichi Hara/Yuji Moto

Shin-Ei Animation

FUNimation Entertainment

Crayon Shin-chan: Action Kamen vs Leotard Devil

N/A

1993

Mitsuru Hongo

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: The Secret Treasure of Buri Buri Kingdom

N/A

1994

Mitsuru Hongo

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: Unkokusai's Ambition

N/A

1995

Mitsuru Hongo

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: Adventure in Henderland

N/A

1996

Mitsuru Hongo

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: Pursuit of the Balls of Darkness

N/A

1997

Keiichi Hara

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: Blitzkrieg! Pig's Hoof's Secret Mission

N/A

1998

Keiichi Hara

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: Explosion! The Hot Spring's Feel Good Final Battle/Kureshin Paradise! Made in Saitama

N/A

1999

Keiichi Hara

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called The Jungle

N/A

2000

Keiichi Hara

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: The Adult Empire Strikes Back

N/A

2001

Keiichi Hara

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: The Battle of the Warring States

N/A

2002

Keiichi Hara

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: Yakiniku Road of Honor

N/A

2003

Tsutomu Mizushima

Shin-Ei Animation

N/A

Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: The Kasukabe Boys of the Evening Sun